Rakovsky, Council of People’s Commissars
Kiev
Mezhlauk, Deputy People’s Commissar for War
Kharkov

I repeat my request I hat you telegraph me twice a week
about your actual help to the Donets Basin. I insist on
the fulfilment of this request. Don’t lose a moment of
your victory over Grigoryev, don’t release a single soldier
who has been fighting
Grigoryev.[1] Decree and put into
effect the complete disarmament of the population, shoot
on the spot without mercy for every concealed rifle. The
whole problem of the moment is a rapid victory in the
Donets Basin, the collection of all rifles from the villages, the
creation of a stable army. Concentrate all forces on this
task, don’t relax your energies, mobilise the workers en
masse. Read this telegram to all prominent Bolsheviks.

Notes

[1]Reference is to the counter-revolutionary “ataman” Grigoryev, who
in May 1919 had started an insurrection in the rear of the Red Army
in the Southern Ukraine (Elizavetgrad, Ekaterinoslav, Krivoi Rog
and Kherson area). The insurrection was crushed at the end of
May 1919.